I am fairly new and novice to point and miles game, so can any one answer these questions? I have points on Citi Prestige card in India and can transfer the points to Airline at 1 point = 4 miles or with Hilton with 1 point = 6 Hilton points. These points are worth bare minimum INR 1 ~ USD 1.5 cent as can be used directly to pay card bill with Citi.

I am not sure how reward flight with any of the airlines makes sense?
> Economy redemption with any airline i try, its a complete sham as the taxes are equal to full fare of comparative airlines or even the same airline. So what ever miles they charge is just waste. ( Eg - tried this on BOM - LHR on British airways, BOM - JFK by Etihad or Jet Airways)

>Business/First redemption - Taxes + value of miles used is generally less by only 20% than full fare of the Business of comparative airlines or even the same airline.

So for reward flight, in economy you lose money, and in Business/First you only gain 20% value (1.8) on bare minimum 1.5 cent given by Citi.

While on hotel programs the 1 point = 6 Hilton points.. and when you look for properties you get a very good deal of (4 to 6) cents for Conrad properties.

So can any one tell me where i am going wrong with flight rewards, or my conclusion is correct that it make no sense to convert your points to Airline partner than to hotel partner.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Raghav Kalantri.

1. Airlines rewards are far from available all the time. So if you transfer, and then can't find the award you want, you've got even less value.

2. Not all airlines have surcharges on top of miles. Not all airlines are thus as poor a value for awards (if you can find them) in longhaul premium cabins as the one or two airlines you may have evaluated. (Many, though not all, people do feel that awards for coach seats are usually not worth it. OTOH, awards for premium cabins may not be worth it either if you would be happy enough just to fly in coach.)

3. Hilton just got rid of categories. So it's harder to predict the exact number of points needed for particular Hilton property.

4. Hilton points don't expire as long as you earn or redeem at least one Hilton point every 12 months. Many of the airlines you can transfer to from Citi TYP expire after a couple years and there's no way to extend that at all.

There is a thread in the Citi forum of FT specific to these kinds of questions:

You are confusing real taxes as paid governments, regulatory authorities and the like.
Surcharges are paid to the airlines (=100% airline profit)
There are cash surcharges on award flights with some ffp’s/routes/airlines. Award surcharge can/are different.
Real taxes on award flight are the same for all airlines for the same route and class.
A surcharge can trigger additional real taxes if the flight changes from a non revenue flight to a revenue flight.

BA have high surcharges on awards. Other airlines can have nil surcharges.